March 17 (Bloomberg) -- Tiger Woods
will next month try to
match a feat last achieved by Ben Hogan 57
years ago: winning
golf’s Masters Tournament
in his season debut.
Hogan triumphed at the Augusta National Golf Club in his
opening tournament of 1951, two years after nearly dying in a
car crash. In 1953, he again won the Masters in his first event
of the year.
While Woods’s single-car accident four months ago didn’t
endanger his life, the world’s No. 1 golfer will attempt to win
his 15th professional major and fifth Masters title in Augusta,
Georgia, beginning
April 8. Oddsmakers list him as the pre-
tournament favorite.
“The Masters is where I won my first major and I view this
tournament with great respect,” Woods, 34, said in an e-mailed
statement yesterday. “After a long and necessary time away from
the game, I feel like I’m ready to start my season at Augusta.”
Woods, who last won the Masters in 2005, hasn’t played in a
tournament since November. His return was announced a month
after he spoke publicly for the only time about the Nov. 27
accident outside his Florida home that led to worldwide scrutiny
of his personal life. He admitted marital infidelity and
announced his indefinite leave from golf in a statement on his
Web site on Dec. 11.
Woods previously has won a major after taking an extended
break. In 2008, he beat Rocco Mediate
in a playoff at the U.S.
Open following a two-month absence because of a knee injury.
However, two years earlier he missed the cut for the first
time in a major as a professional at the U.S. Open at Winged
Foot in Mamaroneck, New York, following a nine-week break
prompted by the death of his father.
Seven-Month Layoff
Last year, he came back from a seven-month absence after
knee surgery to win six U.S. PGA Tour events in 17 starts.
Woods is the 4-1 favorite to win the Masters, according to
the Las Vegas Hilton, followed by 2004 and 2006 champion Phil
Mickelson at 8-1 and three-time major winner Padraig Harrington
at 20-1.
Woods may benefit from a controlled environment at Augusta
National, where Hogan is the only player to have won in his
season-opening event since World War II.
Admission tickets are passed down for generations and
spectators risk losing access if they violate tournament rules,
which include a ban on running on the grounds and using cell
phones or periscopes. Media credentials also are controlled by
the club, making it less likely that Woods will face questions
from non-golf reporters or news outlets he’s unfamiliar with.
Welcome Back
Billy Payne,
chairman of Augusta National, welcomed the
return of the game’s biggest draw.
“We support Tiger’s decision,” he said in an e-mailed
statement. “Additionally, we support and encourage his stated
commitment to continue the significant work required to rebuild
his personal and professional life.”
Woods returns with his appeal as a corporate spokesman in
tatters. National polling in the week that ended March 2 by
Davie Brown Entertainment found that the golfer, once ranked
sixth as a celebrity endorser, is now 147th on the firm’s Davie
Brown Index.
AT&T
Inc. and Accenture
Plc, the consulting company that
made Woods the centerpiece of its marketing, dropped him in
December. PepsiCo
Inc.’s Gatorade cut ties shortly after he
emerged from hiding on Feb. 19 to deliver a 13 1/2-minute
statement at the TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida,
during which he apologized for his behavior.
TAG Heuer, the Swiss watchmaker owned by LVMH Moet
Hennessy
Louis Vuitton SA, has scaled back its use of him, while
Cincinnati-based Procter
& Gamble Co. will continue to limit his
role in its Gillette razor advertising, company spokesman Mike
Norton said in a statement.
Nike Stays On
Nike Inc.,
which built its golf equipment business around
Woods, has stood by the player and said yesterday that it looks
forward to his return.
“Those who stayed with him will stay with him,” said Marc
Ganis, president of Sportscorp Ltd., a consulting firm in
Chicago. “Those who dropped him will keep him dropped and he
won’t be adding anyone new in the near term.”
The return of Woods, who has earned $1 billion in prize
money and sponsorships according to Forbes magazine, will also
limit losses for the golf industry, which marketing and
television analysts estimated could have reached $220 million
had he taken the entire year off.
Ad Losses
In December, Aaron Cohen,
chief media negotiating officer
at New York-based advertising agency Horizon Media Inc., said
that ad losses may have been at least $192 million if Woods had
stayed out of competition all year. Nike stood to lose more than
$30 million in sales, said Claire Gallacher,
an analyst with San
Diego-based Capstone Investments Inc.
“This is the best thing that could happen for the TV
networks, the advertisers and for the PGA,” Shari Ann Brill,
an
independent media analyst in New York, said in an interview.
The first two rounds of this year’s Masters, the first of
four annual major championships, are scheduled to be televised
in the U.S. on Walt
Disney Co.’s ESPN cable channel, with the
final two rounds on CBS Corp.’s flagship CBS network. Comcast
Corp. will show the tournament on a 3-D channel this year, a
first for a live sports event.
Woods first won the Masters in 1997 with a record 12-shot
victory over Tom Kite. The
victory attracted 15.8 million
viewers to the tournament, a record for golf, according to
Nielsen Co. data going back to 1971. His win in 2001 ranked as
the second-most watched with 15 million.
Continuing Therapy
Woods has had almost two months of in-patient therapy and
is continuing his treatment, he said yesterday.
“Although I’m returning to competition, I still have a lot
of work to do in my personal life,” he said.
He is four wins shy of tying Jack Nicklaus’s
mark of 18
major titles and hasn’t missed the Masters since his first
appearance, as an amateur in 1995.
“The major championships have always been a special focus
in my career,” said Woods. “Augusta is where I need to be,
even though it’s been a while since I last played.”
His most recent victory came in his last tournament, the
Australian Masters, on Nov. 15, for his first victory in that
country. He has won 73 PGA Tour events, trailing only Sam Snead,
who had 82 victories.
In December, Woods was named the PGA Tour’s Player of the
Year for the 10th time, even though he went winless in the
majors in 2009 for the first time in five years. Two days
earlier, he was named Athlete of the Decade in a vote by members
of the Associated Press.
$10 Million Bonus
While Woods failed to capture the Masters, U.S. Open,
British Open or PGA Championship last season, he collected the
$10 million bonus that went with winning the season-long FedEx
Cup title.
This year’s U.S. Open will be played at California’s Pebble
Beach Golf Links for the first time since Woods won the
tournament by 15 shots there in 2000.
“He will go down as one of the greatest players of all
time, if not the greatest,” U.S. Golf Association Executive
Director David Fay said
last week in an interview. “And he’s
still in the prime of his golfing career. As fans, you want to
see the No. 1 player come back because golf is so important.
That’s what he does. That’s his job.”